Covid crisis has advanced digital connectivity in the automotive supply chain
By Marcus Williams2020-09-28T10:45:00
If there is one silver lining to the Covid-19 crisis, it is that carmakers and their suppliers have been forced to adopt digital tools to communicate faster and to remotely visualise together what is necessary in managing plant shutdowns and ramp-ups. Lessons have been learned in how better to establish the digital transformation of supply chain management that will push the industry forward as a whole.
At the recent ALSC Live conference, Marc Brazeau, head of logistics at FCA North America, said the crisis had increased the understanding within individual organisations of the value of digital transformation, particularly in areas of the supply chain to which it lends itself, logistics and transport being two of them.
FCA switched to ‘sprint’ meetings with internal teams and suppliers using digital communication platforms to speed up decision making on the shutdowns of the plants in its network. It was also crucial to the restart of operations, according to Brazeau.
That was a point reinforced by Raman Mehta, chief information officer and vice-president at tier one supplier Visteon, a company that began its software-centric journey a couple of years ago.